Diksha Mehta 51st Lorne Proteins Conference 2026

Diksha Mehta

I am a fifth-year PhD candidate at the IITB–Monash Research Academy, jointly affiliated with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and Monash University, Australia. My doctoral research, titled “Importins-alpha and beta from apicomplexan parasites: structure, function and screening for inhibitors,” focuses on understanding the nuclear import machinery in Toxoplasma gondii using structural and computational biology approaches. Trained as a structural biologist, I work extensively with biophysical assays and molecular dynamics simulations to study protein–protein interactions and identify small-molecule inhibitors targeting Toxoplasma gondii importin complexes. My research aims to bridge experimental and computational insights to uncover parasite-specific mechanisms that could inform novel therapeutic strategies. I am jointly supervised by Prof. Swati Patankar and Prof. Prasenjit Bhaumik, from IIT Bombay, and Prof. David Jans and Prof. Fasseli Coulibaly from Monash University, and will be submitting my thesis soon.